Attorney General Josh Stein will face Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson as the Democratic candidate for North Carolina’s 2024 gubernatorial election.
The Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School alum has worked in politics for over two decades, serving as senior deputy attorney general for consumer protection in the state Department of Justice from 2001 to 2008 and as state senator from 2009 to 2016. In 2016, Stein was elected attorney general of North Carolina.
Anthony Solari, assistant teaching professor in political science at NC State, said Stein’s education and political experience set him apart from his controversial opponent.
“[Robinson] is very polarizing,” Solari said. “Josh Stein is Harvard-educated, more or less moderate — kind of left-leaning, I guess you could say — but is fairly centrist and progressive, with a lot of political experience.”
Stein has made headlines for becoming the first attorney general in the country to reach a settlement with Juul in an attempt to hold the company accountable for the teenage vaping epidemic, winning $47.8 million for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
Stein’s campaign focuses largely on decreasing the cost of housing, increasing job creation, fighting against gerrymandering and improving education and access to health care, including reproductive care.
Stein said he believes economic development in the state is connected to the housing crisis North Carolina has been experiencing.
“In many ways, we’re a victim of our own success,” Stein said in a press conference. “What’s going on in the economy here is very exciting. We’ve had some of the largest economic development announcements in the history of the state in the last couple years.”
Stein pointed to the developments of automotive company VinFast’s manufacturing center and Toyota’s battery production plant as examples of job growth in the state and associated this growth with the housing crisis.
“It’s all very exciting, but it comes with a downside, which is, it increases the number of people who need housing,” Stein said. “And this is a perfect example of supply and demand. When you have increasing demand, and the supply doesn’t increase, then the price, because of the scarcity, goes up. We have got to increase the supply of housing.”
Stein said he intends to increase the supply of housing of every kind by working with local governments, which have zoning requirements and construction rules, and the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency.
Along with increasing housing supply and addressing affordability from an economic standpoint, Stein also intends to crack down on “illegal conspiracies” that can further increase housing costs. As attorney general, he recently launched an investigation into the use of private data by “RealPage,” a software company already battling multiple antitrust suits.
“When you have some illegal conspiracy to jack up the prices on top of that, I’m gravely concerned,” Stein said. “That would violate our state’s antitrust laws, which is why I’m investigating this outfit.”
Stein also pointed to his work as attorney general to substantiate his intent to improve public education in North Carolina, referencing his work to stop the overturning of the Leandro case.
Leandro v. State of North Carolina, first filed over two decades ago and since reviewed by the state’s Supreme Court four times, determined North Carolina must increase its funding for public schools to ensure equal access to basic education.
A 2022 plan to transfer $5 billion to school districts across the state, negotiated in part by Stein as attorney general, was rebuffed by Republican leaders in the state legislature who requested the case be reconsidered.
“Right now, we as a state are … in essence, undermining the quality of public education being delivered in North Carolina,” Stein said. “We are 49th in the country and what we spend on K-12 as a share of our state’s economy, which is a disgrace, … so Leandro is a great opportunity for us to do right by the students.”
Stein’s campaign focuses heavily on college students and the younger voting demographic, exemplified by Students for Stein. Solari believes this is because younger demographics appear to be more left-leaning and that this could give Stein an upper hand in the election.
“They need young people to turn out,” Solari said. “Both sides do, but … young people these days are trending much more liberal than conservative. So you get a big turnout among young people, chances are, it’s going to help the Democrats more on average.”
Solari urged college students to participate in elections and emphasized the impact of young voters on both the state’s gubernatorial election and the national presidential election.
“What the young people need to understand is this state can make a big difference,” Solari said. “This isn’t Oklahoma; this isn’t New York; … it’s a purple state, and this state can make a big difference in the outcome of this national election.”
